Page 72 of Trusting Liam (Taking Chances 2)

opened the door wasn’t there for Kira. I couldn’t understand how I could be so in love with someone who no longer loved me.

“It didn’t take long, maybe a week since I had nothing else to do but think about it, but I quickly realized that it was the idea of us and loving you that I’d clung to for those years. All I thought about was how it had been between us when we were married, what I’d continued thinking about while I was gone, and how it felt now that I was near you again. I figured out that I loved you, but I had fallen out of love with you sometime while I was gone. Not consciously, but probably because in my mind I was still cutting ties—and that included not loving you—and I knew that I had to prepare for you not to be waiting. Like I said, it wasn’t conscious, because I’d been hoping for the opposite that whole time, but it didn’t change the reality of my feelings for you now.

“I should have left then. I should have apologized for turning your world upside down again, and left you to go back to your life. But I couldn’t. You’d moved on, but you were still giving us a chance like I’d asked for, and I knew I had to give us that chance too. I knew no matter what you decided, I would be happy. But something has changed in the last couple weeks, and to be completely honest with you, I’ve been terrified that you would choose me. I just didn’t know how to ask you not to after asking you to give me a second chance.”

Throughout his entire speech, I sat there with wide eyes, and I was pretty sure I’d stopped eating at some point during that time. As he got closer to finishing, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You’re not mad? Wait! What’s happened in the last couple weeks?”

A secretive smile I’d known well a long time ago crossed his face, and he dropped his head. When he lifted it again, he asked, “Is it okay if I’m not ready to tell you yet? There’s someone else I need to talk to first.”

The question surprised me, and I opened my mouth to respond but shut it when I realized I had no idea what I’d been about to say. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, it’s okay. I wasn’t expecting this, but I know I’ve said that exact same thing before . . . so I have to be okay with waiting.”

“I will tell you, Kennedy. Just not yet.”

I smiled and nodded. “I know you will.” I looked at our half-eaten meals and laughed. “Well! We just got a conversation I’ve been dreading out of the way. And I’m guessing you feel as relieved as I do?” He sent me a confirming smile, and I asked, “How about we finish this dinner and then get out of here?”

“Sounds perfect.”

Once we were finished and the bill was paid, we stood to leave. Rhys walked directly behind me out of the restaurant, and helped me into his truck. We talked about the dinner, and the relief we felt now that everything was out there in the open. Everything about our conversation felt perfect. It felt easy. It felt like a friendship. A friendship I should have had with him for over a month.

When we pulled up to the condo, I touched his arm to stop him from getting out of his truck. “I’m going to grab the keys to the car, and then I’m going to leave so I can talk to Liam. I want you to know that just because we know for sure nothing will happen between us, you do not have to leave. Kira and I both really like having you here, and if you want to stay, please do.”

That secretive smile was back. “I appreciate it.”

Leaning over the console, I wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled him closer so I could press a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you, Rhys. For everything. You showing up in California was the best gift you could have ever given me.”

18

December 5

Liam

I’D BARELY BEEN home long enough to take a shower before Kennedy was at my door, but that knocking couldn’t have come soon enough. The hours while she was with Rhys had dragged.

As soon as the door was open, she was launching herself at me and clinging to me like she was afraid I’d disappear.

“Hey, did it go okay?”

“Better than okay. I’m still in shock at how okay it went. Rhys said he’d realized soon after he moved here that he was no longer in love with me. But he felt like he owed it to me to give us the chance that he’d asked me for.”

My eyes widened. “Are you serious?”

“Ye—” Her words cut off abruptly when I pushed her against the wall and pressed my mouth to hers.

Kennedy’s hands immediately went to the bottom of my shirt and began lifting it, but just as fast as they got there, she released the fabric and pushed against my stomach. “Liam, wait. I need to talk to you, and if you keep kissing me then I’ll skip the talking.”

I grinned wickedly, and she giggled against my next kiss.

“No, I’m serious. This has to be said before we do anything else. So we’re going to go sit on your couch—on opposite ends—and I’m going to tell you everything I’ve been keeping from you. Well, except the whole Rhys thing, I’m pretty sure you understand that by now.”

As much as I wanted Kennedy underneath me in my bed, I knew I’d been waiting months for this talk and didn’t want to put it off any longer if she was ready. Once we were seated on opposite ends of the couch with her feet in my lap, she blew out a long breath like she was collecting herself, and then waited another few seconds.

“Okay,” she said. “There are three things that you need to know. First is the tattoo that Kira and I got the day before Rhys showed up.” Grabbing the collar of her shirt, she pulled it to the side to show me, as if I would have forgotten. “Kira, as you know, had been with Zane for years, and you saw what happened to her when he left her. You now know about Rhys, and sometime during the months with you, I realized that Rhys and my past with him no longer had the same control over me that they originally had. Before, that past controlled my life, but as I got deeper into my relationship with you, I got further and further from that past, and its hold. So Kira and I both felt like we were finally free from our past relationships—relationships that had completely changed us. That is what the free hearts stand for.” Kennedy laughed and shook her head. “And then my past came back into my life the next day, and you saw how that went.”

I smiled, but remained quiet as I grabbed her feet in my hands and started rubbing them. I didn’t want to interrupt her, but I wanted her to know how much I was appreciating that she was finally telling me this.

“The second is, I like being in control of my life . . . eh, well, mostly my sex life. It makes me panic when I’m not in control of kisses, touches . . . everything. Like I told you that day in your office, only you and Rhys have ever been able to make me willingly give up my control. But only Rhys has ever known why I needed that control.”

I waited somewhat patiently while Kennedy looked like she was trying to gather her thoughts. But this was something I’d wanted to know since Vegas, and knowing that I was seconds away from finding out had me almost begging her to tell me.

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